Monday, November 1, 2010

New SuperiorPOD products

SuperiorPOD has unveiled a new web interface and some new products, both of which are improvements. The old website was a bear to use; you had to download templates and FTP them back, and it was tough to figure out the ordering process and your order status. It also had a number of clunky web design elements and misspellings, which didn't affect the product but made them seem less serious. For 18 card decks, the new web site seems to allow you to create your cards within a graphic editor; that's probably a lot easier for most folks to use, although I think I'd rather still make my art in a commercial program on my home computer and transfer it in finished form. That's still the system for the larger card decks.

They're also offering custom printed tuck boxes for a variety of deck sizes, from the traditional 54 up to 108 in a side-by-side two-deck format. That's really neat. With this improvement, you really have a chance to print up a small print run of a game and sell it individually without making the big investment of large scale printing.

The drawbacks? Well, the tuck boxes cost about $0.50 to $1.00 each depending on quantity, and the cards are reasonable but not cheap - they also get discounted in quantity, but you're still going to be paying six to ten cents a card. So, for Diggity, for example, I could do the 108-card deck and box and get to about $9 a copy ordering six at a time. That's a price I could probably barely make money at if I were selling them myself over the web or at conventions or whatever, but not something you could go into bigger production with, and the box is a tuckbox rather than a setup box, so it won't look as nice as sturdier packaging.

I had issues with delays (not quality) with SuperiorPOD when I ordered through them which I've detailed here, and TheGameCrafter recently ended their relationship with SuperiorPOD based on quality concerns, but SuperiorPOD did make me a nice set of quality games.

They say they've got a faster digital press now, so orders get out within two weeks. They also say they'll assemble finished copies of your game if you get them printed at the same time you order the boxes. Shrink wrapped too. Pretty neat.

The website is way better now, and the boxes are something TheGameCrafter can't do yet, so they may well be worth a look if you're looking to print good quality card games in small numbers.